Justin swore under his breath. Dakota continued, “So I could have called you all, but it made more sense to wait until I informed Hank Langley as he is the owner of the Club. He said he’d inform the other members, but we five, including Aaron, would take the lead and handle the situation. So now we need to discover what’s wrong together. Decide what to do together. And earlier, there were just too many people here. It made the most sense to hold up any further investigations until after dark, now. Once the poker game breaks up in the other room, we’ll be the only ones here. I only wish we’d managed to get hold of Aaron before now, because I have a feeling we’re going to need his advice.”
Matthew rolled his shoulders, obviously trying to shrug off the tension kinks. He also helped fill Justin in. “In principle, finding the wine-cellar door unlocked shouldn’t be that much of a shock. We already know someone stole the two stones. Obviously they got in here somehow.”
“Yes.” Ben stepped forward. “Except that the night watchman should have caught an unlocked door and reported something about it.”
“There was nothing in Riley Monroe’s log in the last two nights?” Justin asked.
“Nothing written in any way,” Dakota said with frustration.
“Well, that’s odd.” Justin knew, as they all did, that the older night caretaker was a hundred percent dependable. Riley may never have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was both reliable and loyal. “In the meantime…we haven’t been able to track down Aaron?”
“No.” Matthew’s tone expressed more frustration. “We know that he’s still in Washington-which wouldn’t have to be a problem if we could just reach him at either the embassy or his hotel room. But the embassy acts like he’s not expected, and if he’s getting messages from the hotel, he’s not calling back.”
“But we left word for him to contact one of us, ASAP,” Dakota affirmed.
“Well, we know he’ll call as soon as he can. It’s just that with so many people involved from Asterland and Obersbourg on that downed plane-and now we presume potentially involved with our theft-well, we all know Aaron’s the one with the diplomatic expertise and background.” Justin half turned. All of them could hear voices in the hall, men’s laughter, louder as they moved toward the door. On a mean cold night like this-and a weekday night besides-it was unusual that the weekly poker game hadn’t already broken up. But they should be alone within minutes, judging from the departing sounds of the group in the hall. Right then Justin was just as relieved to have a few more moments to study the others, anyway. “You all seem to sense that something’s wrong. I mean- obviously-besides the crises we already know about.”
Matthew nodded immediately. “There is.”
Dakota concurred. “Something badly wrong.”
Ben nodded, too. “I think we should wait until we are alone in the building for sure, but this is hard. Like waiting for a tornado. I feel there should be a sword in my hand. A gun. As if something were menacing in every shadow.”
“Sheesh. You guys are giving me the willies. Come on now,” Justin said reassuringly, thinking that the group would calm down if they reviewed what they knew. “We had a theft. How or why that happened, none of us know. But whoever took the two jewels was on the flight to Asterland for sure. And since we recovered two of the jewels, we’re not only ahead of the robber, but he-or she-is very likely out of the country by now. In fact, as far as I know, there’s almost no one still in Royal who was originally scheduled on that flight-”
“Robert Klimt,” Ben said.
“Who’s in a coma.”
“Lady Helena-” Matthew reminded him.
“Who’s still in the hospital, between her broken leg and the burns.”
Matthew frowned. “There was someone else. The teacher. Pamela something-”
“Yeah, Pamela Miles, the teacher who was dancing with Aaron the night of the gala.” Justin threw up his hands. “You guys saw her, didn’t you? Even if you don’t know her. I mean, she’s a thief like Walt Disney was a secret terrorist. There’s no way she could have been our jewel robber. And another local person on the flight was Jamie Morris, but she was going to Asterland to be a bride, so she’s hardly a likely thief.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Dakota suddenly cracked a slow smile. He knew what Justin had been doing. He always did. Dakota never hesitated to take charge of anything-actually, no one ever had to sell any of the Club members tickets. But he’d mentioned before how naturally Justin took the healer role, somehow diffusing the stress from a situation so all of them could work together better as a team. “I haven’t heard a sound since the door closed the last time a few minutes ago. I’m positive those were the last guests in the place. Lay on, Macduff. Let’s get this search party in motion and find out what’s what.”
Ben led the way. Actually, there was nothing mysterious about the passageway. Justin, like the others, always felt that secrets were dangerous. The best place to guard something important to you was out in the open, being honest about it-the way they’d always been honest about the three priceless jewels in the town legend. Everyone knew the legend of the jewels. No one believed it.
Although one person, Justin realized from the weight of the two stones in his pocket, obviously had.
Down a hall, past the cloakroom and rest rooms, was the giant kitchen. Beyond the kitchen was an anteroom, a spacious pantry. Inside the pantry was a door leading down several steps to the wine cellar. And at the far end of the wine cellar was a spring-loaded door. Neither the door nor the door lock was hidden from sight; they just appeared to be a natural part of the cellar wall unless someone looked closer. But the door was where the key should have worked-the key they each had.
Unfortunately, as Dakota had already warned them, the lock was already open. The door click-sprang open with the simple pressure of his hand. Inside was a stone passage. Narrow, cold to iciness, dry. Illuminated by bald lightbulbs strung from the ceiling at regular intervals. The passageway wasn’t as cold as the wind-bitter night, but chilly enough to make Justin shiver uneasily.
Back in the War with Mexico-when the original Texas soldier carrying the jewels had died-an adobe church had stood on this site in Royal. The church was the original mission to the area, which was why Tex Langley had bought the land next to it and formed the Club-to protect the area’s heritage. The law itself wasn’t so dependable in those old days.
Not now either, Justin thought. Which was really the core reason the group had originally formed and persisted in staying together. Laws in themselves had no way to right all wrongs-or protect everyone. There always seemed to be abandoned babies like Angel. Things that went wrong in peoples’ lives. Things the law couldn’t fix. Things no one could fix if someone didn’t step in and make a commitment to trying.
“Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell,” Dakota muttered.
Justin surged forward. His vision was blocked by the other men’s broad shoulders, but he sensed this was a problem specifically for him from something in Dakota’s tone of voice. From one heartbeat to the next, he became a hundred percent doctor. The instant he caught sight of the crumpled body on the floor, he recognized Riley Monroe. He crouched down and felt for a pulse, but from his first look, he already knew.
There hadn’t been a pulse in a long time. Probably a few days. Too damn long to do anything for the Club’s old caretaker.
Over his head, the others had started moving. “Check the box for the other jewel,” Ben said in a tone full of grit.
Matthew responded, “No, the red diamond’s gone, too. Nothing here.”
Then Dakota spoke, his tone as quiet as a winter night. “Justin?”
Justin understood that Dakota-that all of them-were counting on him to come up with some answers. No one had said the word
“A couple of nights ago. You mean, the night the Asterland plane tried to take off?” Ben asked.
Justin used his own jacket to cover Riley’s face, and then looked up. “Yes. That’s my guess.”
All of them exchanged glances, but it was Matthew who sucked in a breath and summed it all up. “What a mess. We’ve got a dead body, a stolen red diamond, a plane crash. Tell the cops, and we risk an international incident-the worst thing that could happen when Asterland just achieved an uneasy peace with Obersbourg. And we’d risk that without knowing if our jewel thief/murderer was an American or one of the Asterland people.”
